(verb) a folksy colloquialism that suggests the ability to perform as desired, accomplish some objective, or generally succeed, as in: “I’m not sure that product line extension will hunt, millennials are looking for something more authentic”; usually deployed to indicate that something will not achieve the hoped-for purpose; truncated from the longer expression “that dog won’t hunt”, which refers to an animal that is not useful for pack hunting due to age, temperament, or lack of training, with the implication that relying on it will lead to disappointment in the middle of the chase; due to its rural origins this jargon may not be regularly used or understood in urban professional contexts

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an area of particular talent, effectiveness, or competence, as in “Our pop-up shops do really well in the Far East, that’s always been our sweet spot”; conveys the sense of identifying the best within a broad range of options or an ideal confluence of circumstances; used in sports that involve striking a ball, where the phrase indicates the place on the bat or racquet that generates the most powerful hit; similar to wheelhouse, which denotes a role in which one is highly capable

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a diplomatic suggestion made when the current topic of discussion is tangential, irrelevant, inappropriate, or suited for only a subset of those present, as in “Let’s take the org question offline, we want to make sure we cover all the operations issues by the end of this meeting”; makes the bewildering implication that the current conversation is ‘online’; in modern parlance offline denotes something disconnected from the internet, but this phrase has nothing to do with the specific mode of communication and is frequently used during face-to-face interactions, which are already offline in that sense; see also parking lot and off-table

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the amount of information being sent or received during a particular interaction, with an emphasis on the speed of transfer more than the absolute quantity; derives from telecommunications and computing, where the word indicates the number of digital bits a system can process in a given time; as jargon it can be used to subtly deprecate while sounding coolly technical, as in “It was a pretty low-bitrate conference, most of the keynotes were trying to imitate TED talks without a lot of new ideas”; by contrast a “high-bitrate” meeting provides significant valuable content in the allotted time, such designation being high praise and probably given by an engineer-type

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work that will require significant effort and/or coordination between multiple parties for successful completion; can be used to draw attention to a task’s intimidating nature or ensure others are sensitized to its scope without sounding whiny, as in “Getting all the sales teams retrained on this new method by the end of the quarter will be a heavy lift”; used in a transportation context to denote complex logistics involved in moving heavy cargo; can also evoke a gym in which the lifter is attempting a significant weight; see also tough putt or tough row to hoe

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a very high-level, preliminary, or cursory perspective on a particular situation, one that intentionally glosses over details to first consider the broader metaphorical landscape and develop a holistic understanding; derives from common flight levels for commercial travel, where most airliners fly somewhere above 30,000 feet; despite the unit of measure being uncommon outside the United States or the world of civil aviation, converting this to the view from 10,000 meters would be a bewildering faux pas, and similarly no one never speaks of the view from five or six feet, which might be more appropriate given the average height of a human being; there are multiple altitude variations of this jargon in use depending on intended nuance, and truly adventurous types may speak of the view from 50,000 feet

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a subtle way of referring to details or specificity, generally used when discussing a more incisive level of analysis or precision that allows for the deeper understanding required, as in “That customer segmentation work needs a little more texture to be actionable”; evokes a surface viewed from a far enough distance that its more fine-grained elements cannot be visualized, or one so smooth that it does not provide adequate purchase; similar to granular; compare to provide color, which implies the need for a more compelling story

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to perform some unpleasant task on behalf of others, or accept a consequence that falls disproportionately on the subject while benefiting the larger group; generally done from a sense of camaraderie and team spirit that one hopes will be appreciated and reciprocated when the time comes; rather than pretending that all is well, using this phrase acknowledges that some aspect of the situation is not ideal; the one who finds himself constantly taking one for the team may eventually seek a new team or sport altogether

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(adj.) describing something that should be done outside of the present discussion, generally deployed in the context of a larger group meeting in which the participants are gathered around a conference table, as in “We’ll need to do some off-table work to develop the focus group themes further”; implies that once the session breaks up activity will continue in another location with a subset of those present; similar to parking lot, which refers to topics that are deferred for later discussion, but without the implication that those items are of lesser importance

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to perform the finishing steps needed to indicate completeness, which might be symbolic, cosmetic, or perfunctory, as in: “Hey Jim, let’s tie a bow on the presentation slides so we can call it a night”; from the notion that decoratively tying a package with ribbon would be the final step in preparing a gift before delivering it to the recipient, this phrase can express an eagerness to be done with some item of work that might otherwise consume attention for a prolonged time

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